Milling Savage Stainless Target Action for aftermarket bolt stop – TIPS NEEDED

[RAGGED]

Hello, I’m looking for any tips that you feel may help with the installation of an aftermarket bolt release for a savage action. I’m currently building a new F-Class rifle from scratch I thought if I’m going this far I might as well spruce up the appearance of the action a little bit. I have procured a generic bolt release/stop from PTG http://www.pacifictoolandgauge.com/savage%20performance.htm that is easily adapted to the savage action. The action is a virgin Savage stainless target version. The geometry that needs to be milled looks pretty straight forward as does the pin placement. I plan on drilling the hole from the bottom and having it be blind as to not punch thru the top surface of the action. I’m a pretty competent machinist but I’m no gun smith, and further more almost all of my experience is with metals that are in a annealed state. I almost never mill post heat treating. I’m looking for any tips that may aid me in this small project, what to expect from the hardened receiver ect, also looking for tooling suggestions, flute count, preferred coatings, preferred grade of carbide, spindle speeds (for specific tools) , really anything you think might be relevant. Your help and wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You, William R

 

[butchlambert]

One big thing you need to keep in mind. Make sure your bolt will retract enough to extract a loaded round. A lot of them will not do that. I've been there and I don't like to remove the bolt to extract a loaded round. For you it will be easy enough to figure how far from the OD of the receiver to mill a mini flat, center drill, and drill. Most factory receivers are 35-40RC and with care are easy to drill, tap, and machine with HSS. I use a 4 flute endmill to cut the slot for the bolt release. The first one was a little scarey.
Butch

 

[Rustystud]

This might be a dumb question. What are you going to do with the existing bolt release and sear hanger? I have modified several Savages existing bolt releases in effect to lighten up the sear weight/mass. It made getting to bolt out a pain in the rear.
Nat Lambeth

 

[RAGGED]

If you could elaborate on the difficulties you speak of that would be great. I would guess you are talking about how the factory bolt stop interacts with the sear and cocking function?

 

[Julietvictor]

You could use a factory bolt stop and modify it. Savage has the front baffle that has a long lug on it (that rides along the side of the bolt body) to stop the rear travel of the bolt when bringing the bolt to the rear. For instance, using a .223 bolthead/ catridge in a Savage long action. If you need pictures I can post them, but I think it would work better than modifying the action for an aftermarket part that may or may not work. You would probably be able to shorten it too if needed. Just a suggestion. And if you ever needed to return the action to its original configuration or sell it, etc. it would maybe be easier? Who knows...? PM me for pics if you need them.

 

[butchlambert]

William, After all this time I see that you said Savage. I was thinking Remington.
Sorry Butch

 

[medicineman]

Here's a tip.....don't do it, it won't work anyway. The bolt stops listed are for Remingtons and clones.
The Savage bolt stop is also the sear and the bolt release. They can't be separated. Study the action a little closer and you will see what I mean.

Now if you are just looking at sprucing things up a little, you can modify the thumb lever to look better. I cut the top of the thumb lever off and added a stainless checkered lever to match the receiver.